THE BLACK SEMINOLES: HISTORY OF A FREEDOM-SEEKING PEOPLE, by Kenneth W. Porter, revised and edited by Alcione M. Amos and Thomas P. Senter (University Press of Florida, 296pages, $29.95).
Amos and Senter completed this study of the Black Seminoles–descendants of Florida Seminoles and groups of fugitive slaves who made their way to the then-Spanish territory in the early 1800s–that remained unfinished by Porter at the time of his death in 1981. The authors present the history of the Black Seminoles, recounting their role and that of their dynamic leader, Chief John Horse (1812-82), in the Second Seminole War (1835-42); their forced migration to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in the 1840s; their exodus during the next decade to Mexico, where they worked as border troops for the Mexican government in exchange for land; and their return to Texas in the 1870s, after which many became U.S. Army scouts, four earning the Medal of Honor. Interviews conducted by Porter with John Horse’s descendants in the 1940s and’50s provide eyewitness accounts of the Black Seminoles’ struggle for freedom in America.
